Editorial: Stop making trouble and find solutions

What the politicians in Washington accomplish when they play their regular games of brinkmanship is not at all what they intended. Rather than expose the weaknesses of "the other side," Democrats and Republicans end up demonstrating the relative insignificance of government as practiced in Washington these days. Or Sacramento, for that matter.

They tell us the cogs of the national machinery will jam on the looming Day of Sequestration and that spending on an impossibly long list of necessities will be cut off, leaving us all like hungry baby birds squawking for our feeding of federal worms.

It will be difficult, of course, for those most directly affected, such as furloughed federal workers and school districts that don't get their expected allotments. The pain won't be permanent, though, and the other symptoms should prove manageable as well.

The momentum of commerce and most everything else in this global economy is not instantly lost even if the worst happens in D.C. on Friday. Those who didn't get their checks will get them eventually. Programs jeopardized by the delay will borrow themselves through the tough times and judges will order the bureaucrats to honor their commitments.

This is not meant to minimize the difficulties the administration and the Congress will inflict on some. It is meant, instead, to add our voice to those trying to tell the partisans that our patience is wearing thin with these continuing "crises" created by ideologues and saboteurs.

The job description for most of those involved is to make things function, to make government work on behalf of the people, to promote the general welfare and the economy while protecting the public from enemies, natural disasters and other dangers.

The job description does not mention manufacturing crisis, stopping progress, attempting to make "the other guys" look bad or making a point no matter what the cost. The difference between a fiscal cliff and a sequestration is lost on most of us, but the definition apparently has something to do with men in suits getting all puffed up about issues that most people don't understand and don't really care much about.

There is considerable fuss about how the threatened cuts would devastate the military, but the public knows for sure the Pentagon would need to lose much more than 8 percent before anyone would describe our defense apparatus as lean and mean.

There could be disruption of air service and student aid, but the airlines certainly will put enough pressure on Washington to fix that problem as soon as the point has been made. Students will get by, as usual, by taking out more student loans.

It is a cynical, ineffective and unfortunate approach to governance. It is another manifestation of the irreconcilable political differences within the expense-account crowd at the Capitol, but that excuses no one. What it should do is make it clear inside and outside the Beltway that those responsible for this nonsense need to stop creating problems and start looking for solutions.